Israel at War: What happened on day 18?

Israeli artillery forces struck the source of rocket fire from Syria on the Golan Heights on Tuesday evening, the IDF confirmed.

Sirens sounded in the towns of Neot Golan, Bnei Yehuda, and Givat Yoav, to the East of Lake Kinneret.

The IDF said two rockets were launched at Israel from Syria and fell in open fields.

IDF strikes terror cells in Lebanon

The IDF targeted a terrorist cell that fired anti-tank missiles at Israel from within Lebanese territory, it said on Tuesday.

The Israeli military responded with artillery forces to anti-tank fire directed at the northern border towns of Shutla and Menara. The IDF destroyed the weaponry used to launch the missiles, it added. 

Italy's foreign minister said an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City last week was not caused by a missile fired by Israel and also questioned the death toll reported by Palestinian officials.

"We need to avoid the negative impact of propaganda because that missile that was said to have caused 500 deaths, in reality it was around 50 people....was not launched by Israel," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told the Sky TG24 news channel.

The Gaza health ministry has put the hospital death toll at 471. Tajani did not say what evidence his comments were based on.

Five people were arrested in east Jerusalem by the Border Police after participating in violent riots, according to Israeli media.

Two were arrested in Shuafat after throwing Molotov cocktails at the Border Police and another was arrested in Isawiya for allegedly conspiring to commit a terrorist attack as well as associating with a terrorist organization. 

The last two were arrested in their homes after participating in violent riots.

This is a developing story.

Some 32 wanted individuals were arrested throughout the West Bank on Monday night by the IDF, and Shin Bet, according to Maariv. Among the 32 arrested, 18 were Hamas activists including a senior figure of Hamas, who were arrested from Yabad, an area of Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

Former US president Barack Obama released a lengthy statement Monday evening about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The statement, posted to Medium, runs about 1,000 words and goes into significantly more depth than Obama's previous statement on the war, a brief paragraph that condemned Hamas's attack on Israel and called on Americans to "stand squarely alongside our ally, Israel, as it dismantles Hamas."

The new post focuses on Israel's responsibility to civilians who are caught in the Gaza Strip ahead of an anticipated ground invasion to remove Hamas's rule over the territory. "Israel has a right to defend its citizens," Obama wrote, "but even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight matters." The ex-president, who governed during Israel's last ground operation in Gaza during the summer of 2014, wrote that "any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire."

"Already, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the bombing of Gaza," he said, "many of them children. Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes." The statement then  goes on to question Israel's siege of the Hamas-run territory, warning that "The Israeli government's decision to cut off food, water, and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis" but also to "further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel's enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region."

Obama calls on Israel's allies to "encourage a strategy that can incapacitate Hamas while minimizing further civilian casualties" and to also provide "aid and supplies to an increasingly desperate Gaza population." The ex-president then reiterates his support for a two-state solution, repeating that "Israel has every right to exist" while also making reference to Palestinians' "legitimate aspirations for self-determination" and encouraging regional actors to engage with "those Palestinian leaders and organizations that recognize Israel's right to exist," even as "the prospects of future peace may seem more distant than ever."

The statement condemns antisemitism, including "the morally bankrupt suggestion that any cause can somehow justify the deliberate slaughter of innocent people," and then condemns "anti-Muslim, anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian sentiment," including "dehumanizing language towards the people of Gaza." Obama concludes by calling on readers "not to always assume the worst in those with whom we disagree," and advocating "respectful dialogue." 

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) speaks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the burial ceremony of former Israeli President Shimon Peres at Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem September 30, 2016. (credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

Obama recommended four articles for "useful perspectives and background," including an article by Ben Rhodes, his speechwriter and foreign policy advisor; a timeline of the Israel/Palestine conflict by the 'explanatory journalism' outlet Vox; a profile of an interfaith friendship between two women in California; and, notably, a column for the New York Times by Thomas Friedman titled "Israel is About to Make a Terrible Mistake," in which Friedman opposes a large-scale invasion of Gaza. 

Israeli leaders maintain that the State has been following all relevant laws of war, and taking appropriate measures to avoid civilian casualties.

Statement comes amid surge of anti-Israel rhetoric

The statement is generally in line with Obama's rhetoric and policy as president. During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Obama repeatedly asserted Israel's right to exist, but his rhetoric about IDF tactics, and his actions behind the scenes during the war, remain a matter of controversy and dispute. Obama had a notoriously poor relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was prime minister for the entirety of Obama's term as president.

The comments come against a backdrop of contention within the Democratic Party, of which Obama was leader as President, over whom to support and how in the ongoing war in Gaza. It also comes amid a more extreme conflict over the issue among liberal activists and academics.

"Our fighters are prepared and determined," the IDF Spokesperson stated in an address to the nation on Tuesday morning saying, "Long weeks of fighting lie ahead, we will act at the most appropriate time."

This is a developing story.

On a special cargo flight dispatched from New York, El Al put photographs of individuals who are currently missing or abducted by Hamas terrorists, transforming each vacant spot into a silent plea for their safe return home, Walla reported on Tuesday.

The initiative, part of a collaboration between El Al and two humanitarian groups, the Pillar Organization, and the Phoenix Group, aimed to draw international attention to the human aspect amidst the chaos of war.

This flight wasn't just carrying essential tactical and medical supplies for IDF soldiers on the front lines; it was also delivering a powerful message back home.

Qatar's ruling emir said Israel should not be given a green light for unconditional killing

Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in his annual speech to open the Gulf Arab state's advisory Shura council, said the fighting between Israel and Hamas was a dangerous escalation that threatened the region and the world.

He added that Qatar will use conservative energy pricing in its general budget.

At least 10 British nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and a further six remain missing, junior British finance minister Victoria Atkins told Times Radio on Tuesday.

The Biden administration is creating contingency plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of American citizens from the Middle East if the war in Israel spirals into a larger-scale conflict, according to a report in The Washington Post. 

American officials, speaking anonymously, told the paper that Americans living in Israel and Lebanon are of particular concern, amid regular exchanges of fire along the countries' border and concerns of a multi-front war.

Hezbollah attacks on Saturday killed Israeli Corporal Tamir Barak, 19, and wounded at least two foreign workers in Israel. The IDF responded using airstrikes, artillery, and infantry. Israel has also begun to evacuate citizens who live close to the border and to amass troops in case of a major attack from the north. 

"This has become a real issue," one official was quoted as saying. "The administration is very, very, very worried that this thing is going to get out of hand."

About 600,000 American citizens live in Israel, and the US has been working to ensure safe passage out of the country since the war with Hamas broke out on October 7.

IDF reserve Infantry and Merkava Tank soldiers train in a military exercise in the Golan Heights on October 23, 2023. (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)

Last week, the State Dept urged all citizens in Lebanon to leave the country "as soon as possible," and yesterday offered Americans loans to purchase plane tickets. There were believed to be about 86,000 American citizens in Lebanon at the start of the war, according to the Post.

The officials who spoke to the Post stressed that an evacuation of that scale is considered a worst-case scenario, with other, more limited operations seen as more likely, but that it "would be irresponsible not to have a plan for everything." Such an evacuation could be "more difficult than any previous operations in recent memory," the Post reported, potentially involving Air Force aircraft or Navy warships. 

Concern not limited to Israel and Lebanon

The US is also concerned about Americans in other countries throughout the region.

In Amman, Jordan last week, thousands of protestors clashed with riot police, and in Tunisia protestors burned the American flag and demanded the expulsion of the US ambassador. These incidents came following an explosion outside a hospital in Gaza City, which Hamas claimed was the result of an Israeli airstrike. Investigations by multiple intelligence agencies have since determined the explosion was the result of an errant rocket fired from within Gaza by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.